“Marco is very close, but we just want to make sure. Abdominal strain, those things, you just want to make sure he’s right,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.

The Bulls finish a back-to-back Sunday at home against the Detroit Pistons.

“It’s whenever they’re ready,” Thibodeau said. “We want to be playing our best and we want to be as healthy as possible going down the stretch, so if that means one more day, two more days, so be it. But we just want to be smart about it moving forward.’’

For the Mavericks, O.J. Mayo played with a sore shoulder and missed his first 12 shots. The Bulls missed Nowitzki during their blowout victory in these teams’ last meeting last November. He didn’t miss on eight shots in the first half.